Indirect Communication Styles
The way people communicate is a vital part of understanding a culture. It’s crucial to recognize an indirect communication culture because the words someone uses are only a portion of the message being conveyed.
Cultures in countries like India, Thailand and Japan are very indirect in their style. This means that individuals often speak in a roundabout way by adapting the language to be somewhat general and extremely tactful. Non-verbal communication, such as facial expressions, tone of voice and posture, take on a very important role as clues about the full message. While the goal of an indirect communicator is still information, he or she strives to maintain harmony, avoid confrontation and save face for all parties.
If you work with indirect communicators in your business activities, be careful to pay close attention to these signals.
- from RW3’s CultureWizard®